Yelo, a Mumbai based neo-bank for the consumers has now secured an undisclosed sum in the seed funding round from the early-stage investment firm Matrix Partners and social impact investment firm Omidyar Network India.
Flourish Ventures, which is another investment venture of the Omidyar Group that focuses on the financial technology investments, also participated in the round, said the announcement.
Some of the existing investor Better Capital also collaborated in the funding round.
Yelo will now be going to use the capital to build the vernacular language capabilities on its platform besides that expanding the current team to 100 people within the coming 12-18 months.
“Creating financial habits that solve the daily needs of aspiring India using reliable and affordable financial services are key to helping create a meaningful life,”
Anuradha Ramachandran, director, Omidyar Network
The startup operates a mobile-first neo-banking platform and claims to offer consumers a personalized suite of the financial products that address the remittance, e-commerce, healthcare, education, and day to day cash flow management issues.
The startup target customer base is the next half billion people who will be online in the next five years, said the announcement.
The customer profile that Yelo is seeking to cater ton includes the construction and manufacturing workers, security guards, farmers, gig economy workers, and truck drivers.
“While India has progressed significantly in providing financial access to low-income consumers, customer engagement has lagged due to poor service levels or standardized offerings that simply do not meet people’s real needs,”
Agarwal, startup’s chief executive officer
In the month of June, Open Financial Technologies, which is a neo-banking platform for the small and medium enterprises, had secured $30 million in the funding round of Series B led by the Tiger Global Management.